Page 21 of Caligo

I chucked a pillow at his head. “I try. Now get your ass out of bed.”

* * *

It took me ages to drag Jasper out of bed, coaxing and bribing. But eventually we made it out of the door. First on the agenda was a quick stop to the pack lands so we could set up a few more hidden sensors in hopes of tricking our wolf friend. There had been few new leads on our opponent and his partner. No attacks either, which left us feeling simultaneously frustrated and optimistic. Any tracks we had found seemed to disappear as soon as we thought we were getting somewhere. Our motion sensors were all still in place, but we hadn’t caught any sign of him on the cameras. This could mean only one thing -- we were dealing with a pro. We’d have to see if the new sensors worked. I hoped they would. For all of our sakes.

Unfortunately, our next stop was the small mall. Which wasn’t the place you wanted to be on Christmas Eve. “Remind me why we’re here again? We could be training,” Jasper complained.

“Because,” I scolded, “all of my clothes are ruined from your crazy ideas about coaching, and I need something presentable to wear tonight.”

Jasper shrugged. “Sounds like my coaching is effective, not crazy.” He held up a soft white shirt. “What about this?”

I felt the soft material. “That’s actually really nice.” The top was beautiful. And guaranteed to have a nice big red wine stain on it by the end of the night.

He grinned at me. “Great. So, can we go?”

“The mall is not your comfort zone, is it? But no, I have to find a present for Mollie. I’ve been a terrible friend lately.”

We’d rushed through the crowds, trying to find a suitable gift. Which meant we had run late. Which is how I came to be standing in front of my best friend with quite possibly the worst-wrapped Christmas gift on the planet.

“Earth to Ava. Ava!” I came back to reality as Mollie called my name. As usual, her party was done up to the nines, with twinkle lights, a beautiful tree, and countless appetizers I couldn’t pronounce the names of if I tried.

“Sorry, Mollie, I was distracted for a minute.” Ignoring everything else racing through my brain, I smiled at her. “You have my full attention.”

“Mhmm…” Mollie followed my gaze towards where it rested on Jasper, who was talking to one of her cousins across the room. Jasper looked hot as anything in a new button down, his muscles tight against the deep green material. “My mind would be elsewhere too if he was my distraction.”

Jasper either felt us staring or sensed I was admiring him because he turned in our direction, gaze on me alone. He smiled at me and I grinned back, giving him a small wave. I faced Mollie again to see her smiling at me. “Okay, maybe I was a little distracted by Jasper,” I conceded.

“It’s okay, Ava. I’m happy as long as you’re happy.”

I nodded, watching Jasper return to telling Mollie’s cousin a story that had him laughing. Every so often he would meet my gaze, letting me know he was there. “Yeah. I’m happy.”

“Good. That’s all that matters. Have you told him you love him yet?” Mollie asked me baldly.

“Mollie!” I shoved her lightly. “No!”

“Why not?” she prodded. “It’s obvious you do. I can tell just by looking at the two of you.”

“You cannot! Besides, it’s complicated,” I explained, as Jasper peeked over at me again. Seeing my agitated face, he tipped his head to one side as if to ask me if I was okay. I nodded my head slightly at him, then focused my attention back on Mollie.

“Complicated as in you don’t love him, which would be a lie, or complicated as in he has a secret family in Chicago and you’re the side piece?” I couldn’t tell if she was joking or serious.

“You’re terrible!” I couldn’t help but laugh. “But to answer your question, no, I’m not the side piece.”

“Then what’s the problem?” Mollie made life sound so easy. I wished everything could be easy.

“It’s…” I didn’t know how to explain everything to her. And I didn’t want to get into the whole situation at Christmas no less. “It’s tricky. There’s other stuff going on.”

“Other stuff like your parents not approving?” When I looked up, shocked, Mollie grabbed some kind of fancy hors d’oeuvre and rolled her eyes. “Ava Green. I’m your best friend. You haven’t mentioned your parents in ages, so it’s only logical to think there’s some tension.”

I sighed. She knew me too well. “Yeah. Things aren’t great with them right now.”

“Girl. When have things ever been great with your parents? Even in high school, you’d come home with an A, and it’d be a week of nagging because your grade wasn’t an A+.” Mollie was blunt, but what she said was true. Things had never been great with my parents. I had always been trying to make amends for things I never really understood how I had done wrong.

I was also grateful Mollie had picked up on tension with my parents instead of digging for more information, and I jumped on the opportunity. “You think? It’s not totally crazy I’m going against my parents’ wishes by being with some guy?”

She shook her head, pointing her now clean spoon in Jasper’s direction. “Not when ‘some guy’ has had that look on his face since I started interrogating you. He really cares about you, Ava.”

I followed the direction of her spoon to Jasper’s concerned gaze. “He told me he loved me a couple days ago.” I couldn’t believe I was admitting this to Mollie. But she was my best friend and I felt bad about all the secrets I had been keeping from her. I had to be honest about something.

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